BP Witch Hunt?

Thomas93

Thomas93

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Does anyone else think the Obama administration and others within the US are trying to pass the blame on the BP oil disaster?

Watching Tony Hayward they seemed to be pinning the blame to him- the money man of BP, looking to blame someone within a huge faceless corporation.

Aswell as it being British Petroleum when a huge disaster happens, but they are more than happy to take tax from the company when operations are smooth.

Just my 2 cents.

Anyone got an opinion on this?
 
Considering their massive amount of violations, I think they should be shut down (in the US). I'm sure they need some kind of license to operate, whatever it is should be revoked. What is the point of regulations etc if there are no penalties?
 
You're right, it was totally Obama and not BP that cut corners to save costs and time and as a result created an oil spill larger than the Exxon Valdez. :rolleyes: x100


Why is it that it seems like every Brit I talk to rushes to the defense of BP? This is not the first such opinion I've heard.

Thomas93 said:
Aswell as it being British Petroleum when a huge disaster happens
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Is that not the company's name? Do you not call it British Petroleum over there because that's what we call it over here...

Thomas93 said:
but they are more than happy to take tax from the company when operations are smooth.
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You're right. $2 BILLION dollars in PROFIT per year is just scraping by. Poor guys.



You Brits have your heads so far up your asses on this. How about we round up all this oil and dump it in London for you?
 
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Thomas93 said:
Does anyone else think the Obama administration and others within the US are trying to pass the blame on the BP oil disaster?

Watching Tony Hayward they seemed to be pinning the blame to him- the money man of BP, looking to blame someone within a huge faceless corporation.

Aswell as it being British Petroleum when a huge disaster happens, but they are more than happy to take tax from the company when operations are smooth.

Just my 2 cents.

Anyone got an opinion on this?
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Well yeah you could say that. Except BP deliberately cut corners to try and save time and money. They skipped accepted industry practices over and over and over.

British_Rover said:
The WSJ's editorial section is pretty sketchy and I think it has gotten worse since Burns Palpatine Murdoch bought the paper but the regular news portion of the WSJ is till top notch.


There Was 'Nobody in Charge'
After the Blast, Horizon Was Hobbled by a Complex Chain of Command; A 23-Year-Old Steps In to Radio a Mayday

Easily the best article I have seen detailing the events during and right after the explosion.

The chain of command was not clear and the crisis moved to quickly for the people their to deal with it because of that unclear chain.

BP Decisions Set Stage for Disaster

Doesn't really matter which order you read those articles in but Part 2 is listed first and part 1 is listed second.
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Five crucial moves by BP: Did they lead to Gulf oil spill disaster?

They have constantly defied established procedures and protocols and flouted regulation in some of the worst oil and gas disasters in the past five years.

http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/bp-gulf-oil-spill-0430

n March 2005, a massive explosion ripped through a tower at BP's refinery in Texas City, Texas, killing 15 workers and injuring 170 others. Investigators later determined that the company had ignored its own protocols on operating the tower, which was filled with gasoline, and that a warning system had been disabled. The company pleaded guilty to federal felony charges and was fined more than $50 million by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.


Almost a year after the refinery explosion, technicians discovered that some 4,800 barrels of oil had spread into the Alaskan snow through a tiny hole in the company's pipeline in Prudhoe Bay. BP had been warned to check the pipeline in 2002, but hadn't, according to a report in Fortune. When it did inspect it, four years later, it found that a six-mile length of pipeline was corroded. The company temporarily shut down its operations in Prudhoe Bay, causing one of the largest disruptions in U.S. oil supply in recent history. BP faced $12 million in fines for a misdemeanor violation of the federal Water Pollution Control Act. A congressional committee determined that BP had ignored opportunities to prevent the spill and that "draconian" cost-saving measures had led to shortcuts in its operation.

Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/bp-gulf-oil-spill-0430#ixzz0r9Z0TfBC
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So no I think the anger is justified.

On top of all that they deliberately misled people as to the size of the spill and the volume of the leak because they will be fined between 1,100 and 4,400 dollars per day per barrel of oil spilled.

Big difference between 5,000 barrels of oil a day and the 60,000 barrels they think is coming out now. That misinformation caused people to down play the severity of the problem and probably led to some of the slowness in getting things together in the beginning and probably led to the failure of some of the capping procedures.
 
Viper007Bond said:
Is that not the company's name? Do you not call it British Petroleum over there because that's what we call it over here...
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BP hasnt been branded as British Petroleum since 1998, its just BP. If you want to go down that road though it could also be called the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.

We dont have subpoenas in the UK, but if we did and it was against an American company then i would think the reaction would be the same.
 
jmsprovan said:
We dont have subpoenas in the UK, but if we did and it was against an American company then i would think the reaction would be the same.
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Why would I care? I honestly don't understand. Isn't the UK one of the countries suing Google right now? I couldn't care less.
 
:lol: And I thought the only people trying to defend BP were the politicians they've got in their pockets.

Like everyone else is saying, they cut corners and caused what is likely the worst environmental disaster in US history. We're not going to let them pull the same shit they did with India to us. As far as I'm concerned, where they're headquartered is completely irrelevant.
 
I've done loads of interviews with Norwegian BP reps, and the local BP boss is a nice chap.

Doesn't change the fact that BP has fucked up. Monumentally.

Really. Proper fuckup. They really did.
 
OBAMA is anti British and BP have not been a British company for some time really - it is BP not British Petroleum US investors own 39% of the company. But is he really doing the best for the US behaving like he is? Hmmmm not sure, what I wonder is exactly what extra he wants BP to do - if he can tell them I am sure they will do it, technically at least. Still they have been incompetent.

All the US Oil companies hate them because they have the 3 biggest reserves of oil around in the US.

Having said that they have managed to cock this right up now have they not? Actually it is disgraceful, the MD could not even speak properly infront of a congressional committee a well know bunch of windbags themselves - see George Galloway's appearance and you will see what I mean.

Now does anyone remember me saying when money clashes with safety(?) and that safety will loose? DO YOU GUYS REALLY WANT ATOMIC POWER STATIONS? With capitalist investments it is inevitable that shortcuts WILL be taken, in this case the oil has polluted most of the US shores of the Gulf, with one of those suckers it will not just be pollution now will it? It will be lots of dead people. Just say'in.

Oh last point if you are ever in a compay and you decide to do something "doubtful" never ever put it on a computer - a) it will get out (see Wikileakes) and b) It can always be recovered by IT forensics.

YOU HAVE BEEN TOLD.
 
I find it interesting that the fact that the problem that this was caused by BP USA is conveniently forgotten, perhaps it would make Obama look a little silly in his criticisms. I found a very interesting thread about this elsewhere.

A few key facts:

BP USA has a largely US management and a largely US work-force.

It operates under MMS rules.

It was a US drilling contractor.

It was a US cementing contractor.

The BOP (blow-out preventer) was designed, built and tested in the USA.

The drill string, riser, and drill bits were all US. Supplied out of US ports.

The drill crew and the BP personnel were all American.

BP USA has had 760 OSHA citations and fines for safety breaches in it's US Operations. In the same period Exxon-Mobil (a much larger company) had 1.

The DW Horizon was running 43 days behind schedule. The rig day-rate was $533k.

Schlumberger (the data logging company) capable of carrying out cement bond log testing were never asked to do their jobs. There are rumours that they were told not to after they had looked at other data and questioned the stability of the well.
 
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The company that BP bought to get into the USA did the old Crocker vs Midland Bank trick - and fired all their "expensive" i.e. competent people, before BP bought them to boost the profits and hence the price. Due dilligence does not extend to the technical and personnel capability of the company just the numbers - they both got shot in the foot.
 
Cobol74 said:
The company that BP bought to get into the USA did the old Crocker vs Midland Bank trick - and fired all their "expensive" i.e. competent people, before BP bought them to boost the profits and hence the price. Due dilligence does not extend to the technical and personnel capability of the company just the numbers - they both got shot in the foot.
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There is simply nothing I don't hate about corporate pirates.
 
Yeah, that's the problem with it. The worst thing is that it's artificial growth, it has little or no relation to actual production of anything. Heck, even the dotcoms usually made something. That's my problem, that it's profitable to fire people like that. It's just stupid, and it's fucking poor longterm.

I'm rambling. As the last days, I'm sleep depraved, so that explains the rambling and poor spelling.
 
Thomas93 said:
Aswell as it being British Petroleum when a huge disaster happens, but they are more than happy to take tax from the company when operations are smooth.
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BP should have been shutdown in the '50s after they stole democracy from the Iranians (see Operation AJAX). They have continued to act like bastards on the world scene since then. It won't make much of a difference, but I hope they die.
 
Viper007Bond said:
You're right, it was totally Obama and not BP that cut corners to save costs and time and as a result created an oil spill larger than the Exxon Valdez. :rolleyes: x100


Why is it that it seems like every Brit I talk to rushes to the defense of BP? This is not the first such opinion I've heard.



Is that not the company's name? Do you not call it British Petroleum over there because that's what we call it over here...



You're right. $2 BILLION dollars in PROFIT per year is just scraping by. Poor guys.



You Brits have your heads so far up your asses on this. How about we round up all this oil and dump it in London for you?
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I do not think you are correct. If an American company has say blown up - oh I do not know say Piper Alpha oil rig, with the loss of say 139 lives I am sure that we would have rung out to dry the US oil company.

I happen to agree with all the posts that say BP (Not British anything - 39% US owned) have badly screwed up and should be made to pay - correct, but I was in the US recently and the comments I got and your TV (OK it was Florida) we just anti British. Not anti stupid multi national oil company. Now if let us say a terrorist organisation wants to split the alliance between the US and the UK Obama seems to have done their job for them. btw if I were a share holder I would be asking some very pertinent questions of that MD - he appears to be rather dense in my opinion. His personality (lack of) alone has cost the share holders loads of money and I am sure that we need a proper fix pronto - he had better be doing it.

The comments on Obama being anti-British are correct and stem back way beyond this business - to give Gordon Brown 20 Region 1 DVDs as a gift and get shot of Churchill's bust signalled it. It is OK as our Politicians really can not play the European card - they are worse UK haters. May be one day they will twig, and you will be left on you own in the security council. Still being dense EU Politicians not any time soon.

Oh and I agree about operation AJAX - criminal IMHO.

The daily tabloid papers are doing the rabble rousing at the moment. Question would you trust BP (or anyone else) to build an atomic Power Station next to your home town?
 
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There's a plant in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and several others in New England :dunno:
 
Oil Spill,
Buy stock
???
Profit!!!
 
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